Canada lengthens its election cycle

August 11, 2015

Canada will hold national elections in October. The campaign will last for 78 days and will be Canada’s longest ever election cycle. But there are complaints that new elections will cost the taxpayers too much money. Critics of Prime Minister Stephen Harper accuse him of calling early elections as a way to benefit his incumbent Conservative Party. We’ll talk with Jean-Pierre Kingsley, a vocal critic of the elections. He was chief electoral officer of elections in Canada until 2006. Kingsley was also head of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. It helps with elections in emerging democracies.
(Photo: Flickr/Alex Indigo)